It is known in the art to provide a mobile station (e.g., a cellular telephone) with a display (typically a low power LCD display) for displaying alphanumeric information to a user. The alphanumeric information is useful in operating the mobile station, and can represent, by example, telephone numbers, various menu functions, or the current state of the mobile station (e.g., keyboard locked (e.g., Keyguard active), home/roaming, etc.).
It is also known in the art to provide a graphical (non-alphanumeric) functional indicator on the display to indicate a current operating condition of the mobile station. For example, and referring to FIG. 5, in some mobile stations manufactured by the assignee of this patent application a display 1 includes a region for displaying alphanumeric information 2, and further includes a first predefined functional indicator 3 for showing the received signal strength, and a second predefined functional indicator 4 for showing the charge state of the battery. In each of the functional indicators 3 and 4 a plurality of vertically disposed segments are provided as a part of the display 1 itself. As the signal strength fluctuates more or less of the segments of the indicator 3 are illuminated in a bottom to top fashion (all segments being illuminated indicates maximum received signal strength). For the indicator 4, when the battery is fully charged all of the segments are illuminated. As the battery discharges the segments are extinguished in turn, starting from the top. When connected to a battery charger, the alphanumeric display 2 may show "Charging", and the segments of the indicator 4 are rapidly illuminated from bottom to top in a repetitive fashion.
The inventors are also aware of at least one mobile station that displays two different images of a telephone handset, and several associated surrounding curved line elements that represent a ringing "sound". This particular mobile station appears to be programmed to always toggle between these two images when an incoming call is received, i.e., when the mobile station is in the Alerting state.